<p>By better I mean in terms of beauty. Which university has the nicer, more beautiful campus? Just curious.</p>
<p>Duke (10 chars)</p>
<p>I liked Duke a LOT more than UNC, hands down. Duke's campus is THE prettiest I've seen in my college visits.</p>
<p>What is the comparison with Cornell? I was told that Duke and Cornell possess the two most beautiful campuses in this country. Anyone has visited both?</p>
<p>Uhm. Duke. No brainer.</p>
<p>Only campus I've seen that was more beautiful than Duke was Princeton.</p>
<p>This is the Duke forum, what do you expect to hear?</p>
<p>I visited Cornell too, and it wasn't nearly as pretty as Duke. It was a lot bigger and much more spread out. It was pretty, but not even one of the top two I've visited. When I went, there was a lot of construction, and that can influence anyone's impression.</p>
<p>Duke and UNC are pretty in different ways. Duke has the whole gothic thing, which I personally think is BEAUTIFUL on a deeper level than anything else ever. </p>
<p>UNC is more, well, random. There are a ton of pretty buildings, but then there are some really really ugly ones (ie some of the dorms which were build in that X shape characteristic of the 60s and 70s...and look like they havent been renovated since...). It doesn't have the consistency of architecture that Duke's West Campus does. Plus it's huge. It's just very different.</p>
<p>I like Notre Dame's more than Duke's, but Duke is still very nice.</p>
<p>Duke has a nice campus. I love it</p>
<p>Duke has the prettiest campus that I've ever seen... and i'd rate it prettier than stanford's and princeton's. stanford is pretty, especially in the entrance with all the palm trees and not, but it's to... flat and spread out. i need more of a community type feel. princeton just looked too old and dark for my tastes. I like how duke is literally plopped inside a forest. there are trees everywhere. and it's really green. and i like green.
plus duke has the gardens and the forest. who can beat that?</p>
<p>i dont know. duke is definitely really pretty, but i was looking at pictures of princeton and yale yesterday and they're both reallllly pretty. almost magical.</p>
<p>That's becasue you were looking at pictures... What do you expect them to show in those pictures? College recruitment brochures could make the City University of New York look like the Garden of Eden.</p>
<p>Just check out the websites/viewbooks of some schools you KNOW are hideous. They can make even those schools gorgeous, so it just goes to show you really can't trust what you see there.</p>
<p>I visited Duke and Princeton in the same week, and I think that they are both two gorgeous campuses- they've both got that gothic look. Let's face it though, Duke has waay better weather..and better-looking students, haha. :)</p>
<p>The weather at Duke has mood swings that would put a pregnant woman to shame. At least Princeton's is consistent.</p>
<p>Well, I'd rather at least have a hope of sunshine than know it is going to rain :-D</p>
<p>Meantime - I really like UNC's campus, too. Wide open, lots of different looks and feels depending where you go. It's got a bit more traffic in some parts which breaks it up more, but it is also surrounded by and close to some cool parts of town whereas Duke West, at least residential Duke West, is surrounded by trees. Lots and lots of trees. Which are very pretty, but they don't put on a very good night show nor do they have $0.25 wings...</p>
<p>Personally, we prefer the UNC campus ;). Since we recently visited both, I'll give a brief description of our take.</p>
<p>Seriously, both campuses are very nice. UNC has gorgeous natural areas and the quads are truly beautiful, lined with very impressive, OLD (some late 1700s) buildings. The dorms on the north campus are also 'ancient', but still very nice. All the architecture in this north campus area is consistently Greek Revival/Neoclassic in style. On the south campus, the buildings are modern, but, especially in the area of the athletic facilities and the medical center, the architecture is lovely, blending nicely with the hills and dense woods. (I didn't get that 'random' thing at all.) There are those four ugly dorms, but four out of dozens isn't too bad. Beware of the hills...they are in abundance on the UNC campus. Nice to look at, hard on the feet. (No 'freshman fifteen' to worry about walking this campus.) The drive in on Franklin Street is probably the prettiest I've seen...curving, hilly roads lined with million dollar historical homes. This is truly a historic hamlet and all the streets are lined with low stone walls which I found very quaint.</p>
<p>To me the Duke campus is impressive, not necessarily 'pretty'. The chapel is stunning and the approach is breathtaking. The architecture is kinda wannabe Gothic....my husband, who grew up in Europe where they keep the real castles, said it didn't really feel authentic. This was more his opinion than mine...I thought it was beautiful in a more overpowering way. The grounds we saw were beautifully maintained, very nice. (The area seemed much flatter than Chapel Hill.) I'm not a Gothic Revival fan, but those who are will find much to love on the Duke campus. Didn't check out the surrounding neighborhoods or the newer freshman campus. We drove in from the highway and the approach was through beautiful forests.</p>
<p>Coming from Texas, I will say both campuses are much nicer than anything I've seen in our state. Rice is the only school that comes close and I wouldn't put it in the same league as either UNC or Duke.</p>
<p>I didn't necessarily mean random in a bad way...what I mean is that UNC's campus, to me, has a mixture of everything you were saying...neoclassical...modern...all of which are very pretty, but it isn't a solely "gothic" campus like Duke. Duke is different in that the style of architecture on each campus is more consistent. Both are very nice a very pretty. It's just a matter of personal preference. </p>
<p>I guess random wasn't really the best word.</p>
<p>Yeah consistency is definitely something I look for in a college campus. I dont want to go to a school where all of the buildings look different.</p>